SPACE SENSOR COMMON MODULE ELECTRONICS

ELECTRO-OPTICAL FOCAL PLANE ARRAYS (FPA) INCLUDING THEIR ASSOCIATED READ-OUT ELECTRONICS ARE USUALLY UNIQUE TO THE TYPE OF INSTRUMENT IN WHICH THEY RESIDE. THE CHOICE OF WAVELENGTH, DETECTOR MATERIAL, SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SAMPLE RATES, AND SCENE CHARACTERISTICS SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCE READ-OUT ELECTRONICS DESIGN. EACH NEW APPLICATION REQUIRES A NEW FPA DEVELOPMENT. WITH THE ADVENT OF Z-PLANE FPA ARCHITECTURES, THE ELECTRONICS CIRCUIT AREA NOW EXISTS TO PROVIDE PROGRAMMABLE ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSINGCHANNELS FOR EACH ELEMENT OF A TWO-DIMENSIONAL DETECTOR ARRAY. EXPLOITING THIS, IRVINE SENSORS CORPORATION (ISC) HAS CONCEIVED AN INNOVATIVE CIRCUIT CONCEPT THAT, WHEN DEVELOPED, WILL BE GENERIC TO SENSORS AS DIVERSE AS HIGH RESOLUTION VISIBLE AND INFRARED IMAGERS, SPECTROMETERS, AND LIGHTNING MAPPERS. THE CIRCUIT WILL PROVIDE ON-BOARD CALIBRATION, DATA COMPRESSION, IMAGE MOTION COMPENSATION, AND BACKGROUND SUPPRESSION, WHILE MAINTAINING LOW NOISE, HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE AND LOW POWER DISSIPATION. ISC PROPOSES TO PERFORM A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION DURING PHASE I AND TO DESIGN, FABRICATE, AND TEST A Z-PLANE COMPATIBLE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DURING PHASE II.